Now it appears that Microsoft has its own executive shakeup in the works. Steve Sinofsky, President of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division, left the company today. The move comes somewhat as a shock considering that Windows 8 just launched last month.

“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company,” said Sinofsky of his departure in an email to Microsoft employees.

I. First Forstall, Now Sinofsky

While the timing of Sinofsky's departure is a bit startling, the writing has been on the wall for some time with regards to his chemistry with other Microsoft employees. Sinofsky's inability to be a team player is cited as a major reason for his departure, and is reminiscent of Forstall's dismissal.

AllThingsD reported this afternoon that there was growing tension between Sinofsky and other top Microsoft executives. This news comes weeks after CNET ran a piece detailing Sinofsky's rise to power at Microsoft, and his rather combative style of leadership. CNET's Jay Greene had this to say about how former and current Microsoft execs viewed Sinofsky:

Most requested anonymity because they feared potential repercussions. They paint a picture of an executive who is incredibly smart and passionately driven to ship quality software on time. But some also say Sinofsky can create a toxic work environment that has chased talented employees away from a maturing company that's in desperate need of innovative thinking.

Sinofsky's leadership style and compartmentalization of tasks and "reporting lines" within the Windows division lead his approach to be labeled as "Soviet Central-Planning." In fact, the toxicity within Microsoft was humorously detailed in an organizational chart comic by Manu Cornet:

[Image Source: Manu Cornet]

II. Steve Ballmer heaps praise on Sinofsky, points to new leadership

Microsoft CEO Ballmer sent a memo to his staff regarding the departure, and praised Sinofsky's 20+ years of service:

As we enter this new era, and with the successful launch of Windows 8 and Surface behind us, Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company. Steven joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software development engineer and has contributed to the company in many ways from his work as a technical advisor to Bill Gates, to leading the evolution of the Microsoft Office business, to his direction and successful leadership of Windows and Windows Live as well as Surface. I am grateful for the work that Steven has delivered in his time at our company. [Full memo here]

Sinofsky will be replaced by Julie Larson-Green. Larson-Green has been with Microsoft since 1993 and has had a hand in program management, and UI design/research for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Julie Larson-Green [Image Source: Microsoft]

“Leading Windows engineering is an incredible challenge and opportunity, and as I looked at the technical and business skills required to continue our Windows trajectory — great communication skills, a proven ability to work across product groups, strong design, deep technical expertise, and a history of anticipating and meeting customer needs — it was clear to me that Julie is the best possible person for this job, and I’m excited to have her in this role,” said Ballmer of Larson-Green.

If rumors are true that she's all for holistic experiences, uniformity, simplicity, ease of use and shit, then I expect bright future for the Windows 9. She'll take Tony Swash's pwnage in the new interesting directions woohoo! I'm a happy camper here. Who's with me?

You're missing the point. Touch is "popular" so MS is trying to take advantage of it. If anything, they need to make an OS that is built for touch AND mouse/keyboard and give you the option to boot into either/or/both (when I say built for touch and mouse/keyboard, I mean to the point where noone complains about it). We should all have touch screens where we have apps/games that are built for both touch and mouse/keyboard so that IF you feel like touching your screen, you can. If you feel like using the mouse/keyboard, you can. Hell, if I want to wave my hand or move my eyeballs in a certain way and make the computer do what I want, it should do it. This is the future and the future should be "now". Just be glad that companies like MS, Apple, Google (and Linux) are striving to make their OS's as good as they are. It's only getting better and thanks to competition. MS may not hit a homerun with Windows 8 but I think they are definitely moving in the right direction!

It doesn't appear that I missed the point that touch is popular to me. I only said it was important not to abandon the traditional UI because many people still prefer it for keyboard and mouse which I am assuming you disagree with?

>Hell, if I want to wave my hand or move my eyeballs in a certain way and make the computer do what I want, it should do it.

Should they neglect the hardware people are using today to support this utopian hand waving eye ball reading future? My opinion is no but if you disagree you are welcome to throw away your mouse and keyboard and type your response to me with your eyeballs. Maybe Microsoft just created an opening for a man of your talents. You should eyeball a resume over to them right away.

Touch isn't just "popular" it's the new standard and won't go away. Microsoft doesn't want to create different interfaces for each form factor. Their vision was of a consistent interface across multiple devices which means that users won't have to relearn Windows as they go between devices.

This is a good long-term strategy as users will go with what they're familiar with when it comes to new devices. I see the Desktop as an olive branch from MS. It will eventually go the way of the DOS prompt.

These people whining about the Desktop remind me so much of the DOS geeks.

I actually got my hands on a Windows 8 machine over the weekend while out shopping.. I've had 8 in a VM for quite a while now but what really got me interested is when you have not only the traditional keyboard and mouse (which work just fine) but also a touch monitor as some of the machines on display had. forget tradition, what it does is changes the dynamics of how a computer is used, PC or otherwise. Did not though get to play with a Surface since they did not have any available.

quote: Microsoft doesn't want to create different interfaces for each form factor. Their vision was of a consistent interface across multiple devices which means that users won't have to relearn Windows as they go between devices.

Thats a great idea but anyone with 2 neurons to rub together knows that every form factor and interface has been designed differently because the devices are used in different ways. There is a reason why a bicycle, a bulldozer, and a 747 all have different interfaces and unifying them is a bad idea.

I didn't say Microsoft was floundering because of dumping Sinofsky. Microsoft are floundering because their core revenues and profits come from products, Office and Windows, that are decades old, that are entering a period of decline and because Microsoft has totally and utterly failed in every attempt it has made so far to get even the smallest presence in the new mobile device markets. One thing that has consistently disorientated Microsoft has been the fact that it's old weapons, Office and Windows as a ubiquitous standard, are all but irrelevant in the mobile device markets. Hence the floundering.

As far as Scott Forstall's departure from Apple, my main reaction was one of surprise. I have absolutely know first hand knowledge of the inner working of the Apple top team or of Forstall qualities. But if keeping Forstall meant losing Cook or Ives or Schiller than I am happy to see him go.

Clearly the salient point here is that the two departures are taking place under very different conditions. On the on hand Microsoft is still dependent on feeding off of slowing declining legacy products in a stagnant market and with a string of failed mobile products behind them. On the other hand Apple who have smashed into new markets in recent years with new products that have been huge hits, built a business much bigger than Microsoft (Apple's iPhone business alone is bigger than Microsoft), is still growing rapidly and who will this holiday quarter deliver record setting results, again. Night and day.

quote: So your post had no relevance to the topic at hand. It was just a random fanboy rant at a competitor you don't like.

Yep. Spot on. I take every opportunity I can to gloat with pleasure at Microsoft's misfortunes. Their pain and disorientation warms the cockles of my heart.

I have no idea whether Sinofsky going is a good or bad thing for Microsoft but Windows 8 shows that corporately they are still wedded to the idea of being a platform/OS company in an age that will be dominated by Android and iOS. That I think is mistake.

Microsoft are a software company and could become big players in the Android and iOS space as well as continuing as big players in enterprise. They would have to adjust to probably being a bit smaller (although still very large) and a bit less profitable and certainly less important in the overall shaping of the tech agenda but nevertheless the software route is viable.

Instead they remain fixated on the notion of becoming a serious third platform in the mobile device market, something they have signally failed to make any progress on so far and which may well be impossible. Even more absurdly they are now trying to become a hardware company - good luck with that.

The 'tell' will be the fate of Office. If MS were to abandon the ambition to become the third mobile platform then a version of Office for Android and iOS is a no brainer. And not just a version but a bloody good version, nothing like the shitty hack on Surface, something redesigned to function as well as Pages or Numbers does on iOS but with even more power.

Currently they are using the exclusivity of Office on Surface to push Windows 8 as a mobile OS. If they abandon exclusivity for Office and launch an Android and iOS version then it will show that they are being realistic about their prospects in mobile.

Personally I hope they make the bad choice every time because I dislike them so much but my dislike of Microsoft is a legacy thing borne of age, in reality nowadays they just don't matter much anymore. The tech mojo moved on and it left them behind a while ago.

Well its good to know you still don't know what you are talking about, but are just a fanboy. It's actually nice to see you come out and say it so openly.

I'm wondering if you have actually used the "shitty hack" of Office on a Surface. I'm guessing not, because it works very well (this said by someone who is actually using one for work).

I'm also guessing you haven't heard that Office is coming to iOS and Android. Microsoft have developed software for Apple platforms for years. They're still doing it. It's not an either/or situation where they either abandon Windows or the develop only for Windows. They're doing both.

It's also hilarious that you think iOS and Android are going to dominate. I seen loads of iOS devices and Android devices in business today. I have yet to see one that has actually replaced a Windows PC. Sure, their numbers have grown and Microsoft are not happy that it isn't their software underpinning those devices, but they're not crushing Microsoft out of existence like you seem to think. Microsoft have still sold more copies of Windows 7 than Apple have sold iPads. We're nowhere near a point where a tablet can replace a PC in all situations. Compliment them, yes - but not replace.

The problem with you is not something anyone needs to say. You've admitted it right there in the first and last paragraph of that post. Everything you accuse "Apple-haters" of doing, you yourself are guilty of doing when looking at Microsoft - because you are a fanboy for one company and you hate the other. Every time you laugh at someone, saying they have blinkers on because they hate Apple so much, just swap Apple for Microsoft and apply the same statement to yourself.

You are too biased against them to see anything objectively. You simply jump on any detail that might support your pre-conceived hope and will just as easily dismiss anything that doesn't support it. It's pretty crazy behaviour when all we are talking about it two obscenely rich companies selling tech products.

Indeed I am as well biased in this matter. I Will always hate Apple and relish Microsoft. Even though Apple is a big part of our future and could send mankind into a new age of technology potentially making it Deus Ex for real, When Steve died and they started suing everyone, making themselves look like desperate ass's, I lost the small shred of respect I had. There things most certainly DO NOT just work, and just because its smooth and the fps stays high, doesn't mean shit for Quality. As a techie i like windows and Microsoft products mostly because I have for power over my own things, more options, easier to modify, but they have fallen behind, and Win8 may "boot" faster, but i Don't like it. Sticking with Win7 for now until more Updates have improves its functionality. Not to mention not everything's compatible with it yet.

quote: I'm also guessing you haven't heard that Office is coming to iOS and Android.

No official announcement, just a rumor, so neither of us know.

quote: Microsoft have developed software for Apple platforms for years. They're still doing it. It's not an either/or situation where they either abandon Windows or the develop only for Windows. They're doing both.

If MS really think they can become a serious OS player on mobile devices then they won't do Office for rival platforms. This not like Mac versus PC where Mac never threatened the Windows hegemony. This time Microsoft is starting way too late and is up against players with gigantic footprints in the market so if MS want to break into the mobile OS market they will need to keep Office as a USP for their mobile OS. I don't think they will and I think the balance of probability is for an iOS version of Office.

quote: It's also hilarious that you think iOS and Android are going to dominate. I seen loads of iOS devices and Android devices in business today. I have yet to see one that has actually replaced a Windows PC.

Who was talking about PCs and the desktop market? That's yesterday. Tomorrow is mobile devices. That doesn't mean that Windows on PCs will go away but it will become commercially and logistically a minority player. Mobile devices are rapidly approaching Windows installed base and will pass them very soon and grow much bigger. Mobile devices are a vastly larger commercial space than the desktop. Apple's iPhone business is already bigger than the whole of Microsoft. So far Microsoft has nothing viable and of any consequence in play in these new markets. Android and iOS dominate the new markets. The choice Microsoft has to make is how much does it shape it's efforts to try to lever the remaining clout of Windows/Office in order to secure a foothold as an operating system purveyor in the new markets and how much does it abandon that ambition. If it abandoned that ambition (of being a vendor of a mobile OS) it could concentrate on exploiting these new markets, which will be inevitably dominated by OS made by other companies, as markets into which it can sell it's software.

Personally I think that Microsoft has probably lost the mobile OS space for good. I just cannot see how it can be anything other than a bit player as an operating system vendor in the mobile device market.

quote: The problem with you is not something anyone needs to say. You've admitted it right there in the first and last paragraph of that post. Everything you accuse "Apple-haters" of doing, you yourself are guilty of doing when looking at Microsoft - because you are a fanboy for one company and you hate the other. Every time you laugh at someone, saying they have blinkers on because they hate Apple so much, just swap Apple for Microsoft and apply the same statement to yourself.

Possibly. There is a difference however. Nobody, so far, is forced to use an Apple product. During the long dark period when Windows/Office dominated the tech world I spent years in various work environments where I had to use Microsoft's shoddy, ugly and dysfunctional crap. I earned the right to actively dislike them and gloat at their failures. Apple haters on the other hand seem to get all frothed up about products they never use and will never be forced to use. It seems so puerile.

quote: If MS really think they can become a serious OS player on mobile devices then they won't do Office for rival platforms.

Not true. You assume they expect to dominate the market in the same way they have always done. ie 95% market share and everyone else in the toilet. Again, its not an either/or situation where Microsoft's only options are complete failure or a total monopoly. They could have a successful, but only moderate platform that they own and then a piece of the pie on everyone else's platforms, too.

quote: Who was talking about PCs and the desktop market? That's yesterday. Tomorrow is mobile devices. That doesn't mean that Windows on PCs will go away but it will become commercially and logistically a minority player. Mobile devices are rapidly approaching Windows installed base and will pass them very soon and grow much bigger. Mobile devices are a vastly larger commercial space than the desktop. Apple's iPhone business is already bigger than the whole of Microsoft. So far Microsoft has nothing viable and of any consequence in play in these new markets. Android and iOS dominate the new markets. The choice Microsoft has to make is how much does it shape it's efforts to try to lever the remaining clout of Windows/Office in order to secure a foothold as an operating system purveyor in the new markets and how much does it abandon that ambition. If it abandoned that ambition (of being a vendor of a mobile OS) it could concentrate on exploiting these new markets, which will be inevitably dominated by OS made by other companies, as markets into which it can sell it's software.

See, this is the problem. Mobile devices won't replace PCs, unless they can achieve everything a PC can. So unless hybrid form factors kick off (and right now, Microsoft are the only ones who are offering a hybrid mobile/desktop platform), then mobile devices will simply be a different market segment. It doesn't matter if mobile device sales outpace PC sales. They aren't replacing PCs.

Here's an example that you'll like as its pro-Apple. It's like when people say that Apple are failing because their smartphone market share is declining. But we all know that is only because the market has grown. Apple's actual sales numbers have increased, even though the share has decreased. Other offerings on the market have not destroyed them, nor made iOS an irrelevance.

Similarly, increasing mobile sales are not taking away from PC sales in any great number. Again, we just need to look at Apple's massive recent success - they have sold 100 million iPads since 2010. Microsoft have still been making record sales of Windows 7, though - to the tune of 650 million copies since 2009.

That's not a company sinking into irrelevance.

If Windows ended up as a platform that was ONLY used in businesses, then it would not be anywhere near an irrelevance - and you cannot compare the amount of smartphones that are being sold to the amount of PCs being sold. Again, they are complimentary devices that belong to different segments.

quote: Possibly. There is a difference however. Nobody, so far, is forced to use an Apple product. During the long dark period when Windows/Office dominated the tech world I spent years in various work environments where I had to use Microsoft's shoddy, ugly and dysfunctional crap. I earned the right to actively dislike them and gloat at their failures. Apple haters on the other hand seem to get all frothed up about products they never use and will never be forced to use. It seems so puerile.

See, that's where you are making random, unfounded generalisations. For one, you don't know what some people may have been forced to use. Unless you know these "anti-Apple," folks personally, you don't actually know what their problem is with Apple. You are just making an assumption and attacking that. A strawman argument, they call that.

Also, as someone who has used MacOS in versions prior to OSX, I can attest that shoddy, dysfunctional software is not something that only Microsoft is guilty of.

I'd also finish off by saying that your use of past-tense (you "spent" years, you "had" to use), I would assume you no longer have to use Microsoft software. Consequently, you are now just as guilty of the reasons you are deriding other of. You are taking pleasure in slagging off a firm who's products you do not have to use.

quote: lso, as someone who has used MacOS in versions prior to OSX, I can attest that shoddy, dysfunctional software is not something that only Microsoft is guilty of.

Yep the Mac OS prior to MacOSX had lots of problems. At the time it was still better than Windows though. We used to call Windows 95 'Mac 89" :)

quote: See, that's where you are making random, unfounded generalisations. For one, you don't know what some people may have been forced to use. Unless you know these "anti-Apple," folks personally, you don't actually know what their problem is with Apple. You are just making an assumption and attacking that. A strawman argument, they call that.

OK - hands up who hates Apple because they forced to use Apple products?

quote: I'd also finish off by saying that your use of past-tense (you "spent" years, you "had" to use), I would assume you no longer have to use Microsoft software. Consequently, you are now just as guilty of the reasons you are deriding other of. You are taking pleasure in slagging off a firm who's products you do not have to use

But using it for several years was just soooooo bad that it scarred me for life :)

Microsoft poisoned the world of computing with their ghastly badly made crap for a generation and in the process disempowered countless millions of users who think that computer viruses, the BSOD and the loss of precious data is an unavoidable part of computing and that they were stupid for finding their computers hard to use. I am so glad their hegemony is over but I will forever relish their every pain. And boy have they got a lot of pain coming. The cliff looms.

quote: Yep the Mac OS prior to MacOSX had lots of problems. At the time it was still better than Windows though. We used to call Windows 95 'Mac 89" :)

No disagreeing that MacOS had features prior to Windows, but that wasn't the point. The "spinning beachball of death," is an example of what I mean. Apple had just as many software issues as Microsoft.

quote: OK - hands up who hates Apple because they forced to use Apple products?

You're still making assumptions. You assuming that its not the case does not make it fact.

quote: Microsoft poisoned the world of computing with their ghastly badly made crap for a generation and in the process disempowered countless millions of users who think that computer viruses, the BSOD and the loss of precious data is an unavoidable part of computing and that they were stupid for finding their computers hard to use. I am so glad their hegemony is over but I will forever relish their every pain. And boy have they got a lot of pain coming. The cliff looms.

Sorry, but you know that's bull. Even OSX is susceptible to malware. You know that, because you've argued against its importance due to the lack of infections in the wild. I know you are not so stupid that you don't realise that Windows suffers from a high infection rate because it has such a large market share. Had Apple held a similar position, they would be just as infected.

MacOS (even OSX) suffers from Kernal panics, which is all a BSOD is. It is not unique to Microsoft.

Data loss is also not something that is unique to Microsoft. Remember the issue about OSX wiping out user data due to a bug in the software a few years ago?

See, all you do is continue to prove your bias. With every post you make, you show up that you unfairly judge Microsoft due to a personal hatred of them and unjustly hail Apple as if they were perfect, even though they've made as many mistakes as Microsoft. They were just less successful with their products in the past.

You admit your bias and you admit it is possible you are unfair. You cannot know that those you accuse of being puerile are any different to you, but on the other side - yet you refuse to accept the possibility.

The fact is, you are everything you criticise in others. you don't even have an argument against it.